Transparency International has released their 2006 index of corruption perception on November 6, 2006.

Mexico lands at number 70 on the list, which puts it close to the middle of the pack out of a total of 163 countries.

” Since 1995, Transparency International has published an annual Index of perception of corruption ordering the countries of the world according to “the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians“. The organization defines corruption as “the abuse of public office for private gain. ” – excerpt from Wikipedia Corruption Perception Index.

“As this index is based on polls, the results are subjective and are less reliable for countries with fewer sources. Also, what is legally defined, or perceived, to be corruption differs between jurisdictions: a political donation legal in some jurisdiction may be illegal in another; a matter viewed as acceptable tipping in one country may be viewed as bribery in another. Thus the poll results must be understood quite specifically as measuring public perception rather than being an objective measure of corruption.

Statistics like this are necessarily imprecise; statistics from different years are not necessarily comparable.” – Wikipedia Corruption Perception Index.